As we embark upon this full day of ministry - ministry of speaking
and of hearing the word of God - may I preface it by pointing out
what all ministry of the Word of God ought to contain. There are, in
the main, three things that such ministry should have as its object.
The first: the greatness and the nature of our calling of God in
Christ. May I underline those two words, the greatness
of our calling in Christ... the nature of our
calling. The second: the meaning of the experience, and the
conflict, and the discipline that goes with that calling. For, in our
calling in Christ we find ourselves very soon in a great conflict
and we find that we have been brought under very severe and
continuous discipline. And it is very necessary therefore, for us to
know the meaning of that conflict, what it's all about and the
meaning of that discipline; what it is unto. And thirdly: the
provisions and the resources available to the Lord's people for a
triumphant issue of the calling and the suffering. That, I feel,
comprehends ministry. And those three things, although we are not
going to dwell upon them, will lie behind all that we have to say
today.

We are now then, coming back to the second chapter of the book of the
Acts. You have that before you. I am not going to embark upon an
exposition of the chapter in its verses or its clauses, nor in its
particular and specific subjects. It is the chapter as a chapter,
not in the Bible, nor in the New Testament, but as a chapter in
history. There is a very great importance, dear friends, attached to
our understanding of this one chapter. I think as we go on it will
become more and more clear to you what an important chapter this is.
I trust that you will see its importance more fully and clearly than
ever you have done before, but I repeat: it is fundamental to all
Christian life, fundamental to the three things which I have
mentioned as constituting ministry to the Lord's people, that we
understand the second chapter of the book of the Acts. Perhaps you
think you do; you've read it, and heard it read, and heard it
preached on numerous times. But when I say what I am saying now
about it, I am fully aware that more than fifty years of ministry
lie behind what I am saying, and I wouldn't dare come to you
with this whole thing exhausted and begin to give you something of
an exhausted subject. What I mean is that I am more and more aware
myself, as time goes on, of the inexhaustible fulness of this one
chapter. Well, let us approach it.

There are, as we Christians well know, three major truths which lie
beneath our Christianity - those three being the Incarnation of the
Son of God (the second Person of the Trinity coming into this world
in man form); the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ (meaning His death
and His resurrection, two sides of one thing: the Cross of the Lord
Jesus Christ); and the third, what is now conveyed to our minds by
the word "Pentecost", that is, the advent of the Holy Spirit. These
are the three major truths of Christianity.

There is a sense in which each of these might be said to be the
greatest. We might say the coming into this world in a body was the
greatest thing that has ever happened in the world: the coming in of
God in Christ in human form. It is quite easy to make that the
supreme thing. But then we might, as we contemplate it, say the same
about the death and the resurrection of the Lord Jesus; it's the
greatest thing that has ever happened in the history of mankind! And
then again, how easy it would be to say that of the day of
Pentecost: the greatest thing in human history. But we cannot say
that of each or any of these separately; we can only say it in a
related way, for they all three comprise one marvellous combination
of Divine activity, they are not separate from one another. The
first leads to the second, and the second to the third, and they are
interdependent and interrelated. Not one of them exclusively
compre­hends the whole movement of God so far as this world is
concerned. Without the incarnation there would be no Redeemer.
Without the Cross there would be no redemption. Without the advent
of the Spirit there would be no church with its world mission. All
these combine then, to make Christianity full.

When we come to the matter that is before us, gathered into that
term "Pentecost" we do know that Jesus placed very great importance
upon the advent of the Holy Spirit. Indeed, He placed a greater
importance upon it than upon His remaining in this world in the
flesh, "It is expedient for you that I go away...
expedient for you that I go away, I go away!" The thing that
struck consternation into those who heard it, the thing to which
they reacted with a sense of helpless and hopeless despair... if it
should take place, everything for them, everything in all their
training, all their religious education, all their hopes and
expectations, all their committals, were bound up with the Messiah
here in this world. And He said over against all that, "It
is expedient that I go, I go away", "better for you; indeed it is
the best thing for you, for if I go not away, the
Comforter, the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, will not come". So He
vested a very great importance in the advent, the coming of the Holy
Spirit, as much more than His own physical presence in this
world. That advent would mean for Him His own release into
universality of ministry, of power, and of presence. He knew that:
"I am straitened", He said, "until this passion, baptism is
accomplished... I am straitened". But here at this time, the Lord
leads us to contem­plate at least, if we do not comprehend, the vast
significance of that which took place on that particular day in
Jerusalem on their day of Pentecost; the vast significance of that
in the Divine design.

Perhaps our best way of making contact with that is to look at the
titles and designations given to the Holy Spirit... not all, perhaps
one or two today. One of them would be enough for the day or perhaps
for many days. Just as we are instructed as to the Person and work
of the Lord Jesus by the names and titles which are given to Him
(and ever remember, dear friends, names and titles of the Lord Jesus
are indicative of His Person and His work) and as we are brought to
understand who He is and what He represents by the very titles that
He bears, so it is with the Holy Spirit. We come to know, to
understand the Holy Spirit in His Person and in His purpose by
looking into the titles which are given Him in the Word of God.

We leave for the present this general and common title: the Holy
Spirit, the Holy Spirit. About that we may have something
to say later if we're able. But leaving that so-familiar title of
the Holy Spirit, that which introduces us to the comprehensiveness
of His person and His function, is the one which is mentioned in the
letter to the Hebrews chapter 9, verse 14: "Who through the eternal
Spirit."

The Eternal Spirit

And that means two things, the former of which we are not going to
say much. It means that He is one with God Eternal. That speaks of
His Godhead, His Deity as a member of the Divine Trinity: dateless,
timeless, eternal. As truly so as ever we mean when we speak of
Eternal God. That's the obvious first meaning, we leave that, but
this title also relates to His office and His function: His office
and His function as the
Eternal Spirit. And there is our door through which we walk
into this vast, this great revelation of God to man.

In this second connection of the Eternal Spirit, we find in the
Bible four major features of His function. I will mention them, I
have very little hope of being able to speak about them all, or
about ninety percent of what I have in my heart to say. We have just
got to go as far as we are able. I'll mention them, and you can have
much fuller meditation than I am able to give of exposition.

Firstly, the Bible reveals concerning the Eternal Spirit, as the
Eternal Spirit:

His Committal to Effecting the Eternal Purpose
of God.

The Holy Spirit is, in His Divine function, committed,
committed to the effecting of God's eternal purpose. There is the
statement; your Bible lies open with that statement. Creation - He
is pervading, He is there as the active agent in the beginning. And
from that moment onward, the Spirit of God moving, moving, all the
time moving in an executive, active way as the custodian of the
Divine purpose; in charge of something to which He has
committed Himself. We will leave that and come back in a few
moments.

That purpose of God is fixed and unchangeable. Let that be clearly
recognised. There is a purpose that God has concerning this world
and its place in His universe; and that purpose is a fixed purpose,
and it is an unchangeable purpose. And the Holy Spirit is the One
committed to see to it that it is not changed, but that it persists,
cannot be defeated. He has taken responsibility for that. It is a
fixed purpose, unchanging and unchangeable, but that purpose is
pursued by the Holy Spirit by divers means and in various ways
through history.

So the Bible is a record of the diversity and variety of Divine
methods and means in relation to the one ultimate purpose and goal.
The Spirit will at one time move in this way, take up this
means; at another time, another way, by another means. How many, how
diverse and varied are the ways of God as recorded in the
Scriptures... the means employed, the goings of the Spirit. Yes,
that's true, and that aspect of things sees what is
changeable and what
is transient. Whereas the purpose is unchanging and eternal,
the methods of reaching it vary and change from time to time.
Something is taken up just for the time being in that
relation, and then that's done and it's set aside. That is what is
in the Bible about the Holy Spirit. You see the galaxy of
instruments, of men used, and the tremendous range of different
forms of the Holy Spirit's activity. Yes, many ways, but one end:
unchanging end.

The next thing about the eternal Spirit is that He is:

Committed to the Maintaining of the Absolute
Sovereignty of God.

The absolute sovereignty of God. God as very God and
only God... supreme and eternal alone God, one God. The Holy Spirit
is committed to the maintaining of that reality, the absolute and
undivided sovereignty of God and the Bible is all about that. Divide
anything between God and another or others, and you encounter the
Holy Ghost. He'll not have it. This is inexorable. This is
unchallengeable; interfere with this and you see what the Bible says
throughout, that dark side of the Bible. All the tragedies,
all the chaos, confusion, frustration, loss of time, loss in every
way, because the Holy Spirit is committed to one thing here. God is
God and He alone has all the rights in this universe. Question that,
dispute that, withhold those rights from Him in any detail and
respect, and the Holy Spirit's up against you, and you're up against
the Holy Spirit. He is committed to the
preserving of the sovereignty of God in absoluteness.

And the fourth thing about the Holy Spirit's committal is

His Jealousy for, and His Consistency with,
the Eternal Principles of God and His Purpose.

You may be very tired of that word "principle" or "principles", you
may revolt against it as some have, and say: "You are always talking
about principles!" Well, alright, if you like to take that attitude,
you can. For some of us that is the word that has opened our eyes to
a vast realm of Divine meaning and explanation. Let it be
recognised, and if you haven't recognised it go back to your Bible,
investigate with this thought in your mind and before your eyes, and
see that God has His
own way of doing things, and that you cannot get to
God's end by any way, but God's way! You cannot achieve God's purpose
by any means, but God's means. You have got to come into God's
thoughts, God's judgments, God's standards, God's estimates, God's
values, how God looks at things, sees things, weighs things
up - you've got to come into that in order to be one with Him in His
eternal purpose. It is God's work in God's way. And what a lot of
tragic history hangs upon failure to recog­nise that, as though by any
means, any way, any how, we can do God's work. Well it
doesn't work out that way. It doesn't work out that way and those
who get nearest to the Lord, and walk closest to Him know very well
that they've got to ask the Lord about everything, even the things
that seem to be the most rational and sensible things. They have to
ask the Lord, "Is this right? Is my natural common sense safe in
this matter?"

How often we have discovered that that which seemed to us to
be convincingly the right thing, did not find the Holy Spirit's
assent. What I am saying then, dear friends, is that the Holy Spirit
is very jealous for the Divine principles. And it is one of the most
fascinating (if one can use that word about the Bible) one of the
most
fascinating things to see the consistency of the Holy Spirit
with principle. Get hold of a single principle, and see how the Holy
Spirit is consistent with that. I dare not stay to put in
parentheses, instances of it in the Bible, but there it is. The Holy
Spirit is just not having that because it's not consistent with the
Divine principle; but He is having the other because there
is no inconsistency, there's no contradiction there - it is sincere.
It is wholly in line with the Divine thought, the Divine feeling
about things. And if you want the Holy Spirit to be with you,
standing with you, you've got to get right into line with this, and
sometimes it requires a lot of sifting out, sifting out, sifting out
to be done. Where is it we have defaulted? Where is our mistake?
Where have we blundered? What is it that the Lord is not agreeing
with and letting us get away with? What is it? Then after much
heart-searching, and breaking, and emptying, we light upon it;
that's it, that's it; and when we have got that, the whole thing is
released.

The Holy Spirit is very jealous about Divine principles, and
wholly consistent therewith. That is but introductory to this: the
Holy Spirit's committal to the eternal purpose of God, and it is in
those ways, but when we have said that, and the much more that could
be said, we are still here before this, committed to the Eternal
Purpose. What is it? What is it? What is the eternal purpose to
which the Holy Spirit is thus committed, to which He will hold, from
which He will not deviate, over which He will be so jealous as to
its detail. What is it?

May I turn you to some Scriptures which are like windows through
which we can look. They are but fragments, and the first is in that
gospel which is fairly generally believed to be the first gospel
record that was written. And I mention that, because if that is
true, there's a greater significance about this little fragment. The
gospel by Mark, the gospel by Mark chapter 1, verse 14: "Now
after that John was delivered up, Jesus came into Galilee". "Now,
after John... Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of God,
and saying, 'The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at
hand'".

Hold that for a few minutes while we turn to the letter to the
Galatians, letter to the Galatians chapter 4, verse 4: "But when the
fulness of the time came God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born
under the law, that He might redeem them that were under the law,
that we might receive the adoption of sons". When the fulness of
the time came... or, "was come".

Back now to Matthew's gospel, chapter 16, verse 28: "Verily I say
unto you, there be some of them that stand here which shall in no
wise taste of death till they see the Son of Man coming in His
kingdom".

And finally, for the moment, Acts chapter 1, verse 3: "To
whom He also showed Himself alive after His passion, by many proofs,
appearing unto them by the space of forty days, and speaking the
things concerning the kingdom of God".

Now, we have two things here in those four passages; two passages on
one and two passages on the other. But they're only, of course,
introductory passages to a vast amount more.

Firstly, "the time is fulfilled... in the fulness of the time".
"Fulness" there is the word for completeness. Completeness. A whole
range of time is now completed and all its meaning, content, has
headed up to this moment: this is the fulness of all that,
and this is the climax of all that. The first thing that Jesus
announced in His preaching was that "the time is fulfilled... the
time is completed... all that is now consummated". Stretching right
back over all time, since time began, there has been something
moving under the Holy Spirit in those divers manners, that variety
of means. All that we have in the long story recorded in the Old
Testament from the beginning... all that, under this Holy Spirit,
has been moving up to this hour. And this hour is the completeness
of that, the fulness of that - all that time. "In the
fulness of the time God sent forth His Son" - the climax of past
dispensations.

I am interested, just as by the way, in noting that Paul in his
letter to the Ephesians in chapter 1 verse 10, looks on, looks on
and uses the plural form of this statement. He speaks of that which
will be the "fulness of the times"! Here it is singular,
"the fulness of time", he looks on and says, "In the fulness of the
times God will gather together all things in Christ". There will be
another great climax when all the divisions of time will be
gathered into this one thing. But that by the way; we need not stay
with that, nor even hold it for the moment.

Here is this wonderful statement, there has been something in view
from the beginning of time. God has had something in His mind right
from the beginning of time which was introduced into this world when
time was introduced. When God made day and night, summer and winter,
springtime and harvest - made weeks and months and years and decades
and centuries, and all the rest of the departments of time - God had
a thought that was to run through all that section of time and
govern it. As we have said, the Holy Spirit pursuing that
from the beginning and now says this startling word that has reached
its climax, that has come to its issue. All the meaning of time
up to this moment is now divulged! It's out! It comes out with the
Son of God incarnate, "In the fulness of the time God sent forth His
Son". What is it? Well, the other passages and the other
half of the statement tell you: "Time is fulfilled... the kingdom of
God is at hand". Now you are let right into all that has been in
God's mind from the beginning.

What was this eternal purpose? A kingdom, a Divine kingdom! God's
kingdom, heaven's kingdom, "The kingdom is at hand" and the last
thing about which the Lord Jesus spoke, as was the first
thing that He uttered in His preaching in Acts 1:3: "Speaking
to them of the kingdom". Comprehending His life, He steps out onto
the platform of His world ministry and says: "The kingdom is here...
at hand" meaning, more literally, "on hand" - it has arrived, come,
it's imminent: the first thing.

And after His resurrection up to His
return to heaven, the last thing He's speaking about is the kingdom.
It's impressive, you know. It's impressive that that was the last
thing that the apostle Paul spoke about that we have any record of.
In the last chapter of this book of Acts, "in his own hired house,
receiving all that came unto him, he spake concerning the kingdom".
This is something, this is something! Yes, the purpose,
comprehensively, is the kingdom of God, the reign of God, and that
order of heaven: "Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as in
heaven..." that's the kingdom. That's the kingdom. So the eternal
purpose is this Divine, heavenly, kingdom and rule, over this world
at least.

From that general and inclusive truth and revelation we are led to
these three things that come out on the day of Pentecost, because,
on that day Matthew 16:28 had at least a partial and
immediate fulfilment: "There be some of those that stand here, and I
verily say this to you, who shall in no wise taste of death until
they see the Son of Man coming in His kingdom". That happened on the
day of Pentecost. When He was about to leave them, He said, "Not
many days hence, not many days hence..." it happened!
But when it happened, the advent of the kingdom, the long-delayed,
the long-awaited, the long-prophesied kingdom, the long-illustrated
kingdom, when it happened, what were the three things that related
to its coming? Well look; look at Acts 2. If Acts 2 is the advent of
the kingdom in the consummation of time up to that point, the thing,
the first thing that is brought right into view so powerfully, so
pre-eminently, is the King is enthroned!

The King is Enthroned

God raised Him up... He has ascended up on high. Of course we need
to crowd into that all this other wonderful teaching in the New
Testament, "God raised Him and set Him at His own right hand far
above all rule and authority and every name that is named... He sat
down at the right hand of the majesty in the heavens", and so on and
on. But that is here on the day of Pentecost. It is both explicit
and implicit, that this One whom they crucified, God has made Lord
and Christ. The King is in His place. The King is there. You
must have the King in order to have a kingdom.

So, with the coming in of the kingdom, the great reality of Christ's
Lordship becomes the dominant note of apostolic preaching. We've
heard it: "He
is Lord of all" - we can say that from one standpoint. The whole of
this book of the Acts (so called) is the account of His Lord­ship in
many ways. But there it is, inexorable, unchangeable,
unchallengeable, because in the hands of the Holy Spirit. This
kingdom of this King is something eternal, and not just of an hour.
The King is installed. The kingdom has come with power; with power.

With all the heart-sinking that comes with our contemplation of
things today where we are concerned, where the church is concerned,
the spiritual state is concerned, it still remains that this
kingdom is a kingdom of superior power; it's the kingdom of power.
It seems to me that the Holy Spirit went out of His way causing this
record to be written to indicate this feature of the kingdom: its
power. Well, if you've ever been caught in anything like a
hurricane, you know something of the meaning of power. You get into
a gale on the sea, and see what you can do with it. Some of us have
travelled on the mightiest ships that exist in this world, those great
vessels with their immense engine power, and we have been hove to
for many hours, because the gale was too great and couldn't cope
with it. The only thing to do was to stand still; let it blow itself
out - wait. It's useless to try and cope with that.

"A
mighty rushing wind" is the simile of the advent of the Holy
Spirit, to convey the idea that this kingdom is a kingdom of power.
Oh yes, you're saying with me, "Oh, for the recovery and the
experience of that... oh, to know something more of that!" But our
failure and the church's failure - and it has its reasons - it is
not my subject, it is not the Lord's fault, it's not the change in
the Holy Spirit - it's the church's fault entirely that this power
is not in manifestation as it should be. But of course it's still
working, and very mightily working, hiddenly very largely. Oh, what
a story there will be read at last when we can see even what the
Holy Spirit has done in days like these, when everything seems to be
in suspense or defeat, or arrest. Oh, the Spirit of God hasn't
evacuated the scene, and has not let go His committal, not at all.
But, the Advent of the kingdom is in power, "...and you
shall receive power", said the Lord as He was going, "when the Holy
Spirit is come upon you".

I, dear friends, do not want to be just giving out a lot of words
and ideas, even though this may be the truth. For me, there's a
challenge in it all the time, and I want that challenge to come to
your hearts. Our powerlessness, our weakness, our ineffectiveness,
our impotence and confusion cannot be attributed to the Holy Spirit.
We ought to seriously and solemnly investigate the matter to see why
it is that there is not more power. Oh, for more power in
our preaching: the Holy Spirit registering with impact as the word
is given. That's what I covet, but oh, for more power in our hearing
and our receiving, that there may be in us like the hammer
blows of the Word of God. Yes, we are sadly in need of the power of
the kingdom, for the kingdom is still amongst us.

And the third thing that characterised the coming of the kingdom -
such a significant thing - was the birth of the church. The birth of
the church. On that day the church was born and what is the
relationship of the church to the kingdom? It is here, of course,
that the reason is given for so much careful, serious instruc­tion
about the church. If you have lost any of the great impress of that
word, by reason of familiarity, if it has become but a system of
truth to you: an idea, in a more or less objective way, listen now
and ask the Lord to recover that loss. Because, you see, this that
is called "My church, My church", has a very, very close place to
the heart of the King, of the Lord, in relation to His kingdom. What
is it? Well, if we use a figure from the Word of God, this is the
innermost thing in the whole range of the Divine rule which is to be
ultimately. The Divine rule, kingdom, is a very far-reaching and
comprehensive thought and intention of God to embrace all things.
But right at the heart of that great spiritual territory there's a
City. There's a City! A city is a Divine idea, or it is taken up by
God and used as a Divine idea; it is.